The Possibilities Of A Different Path
by Artimus Knyght
Summary: what would have happened if something was changed. i am crap at figuring out genres, sorry about that, so it's general at the moment.
1. Prologue

I do not own Harry Potter. Now that thats out of the way. This just popped into my head and I had to get it up before I forgot it. Please enjoy.

**The Possibilities Of A Different Path**

James and Lily were dancing. They had just been married in a beautiful ceremony, they were just out of school and they had their whole lives ahead of them with some very promising career aspects. Life was looking up in spite of the war with Voldemort.

James looked around at the guests. Sirius was dancing with his date, Joy, and even Remus had been dragged up to dance by Amelia. Frank and Alice looked lovely together and Minerva was sitting with her husband. She was smiling, but he could tell it was fake. Her husband was dying, hit with a curse by Voldemort himself. The curse was draining his life-force. He only had a few more months to live, but he came out in public, he showed them that he would live and fight until his dying breath.

He looked down at his new wife and smiled. She looked beautiful. Even better, she looked happy. And that made him happy. He truly loved her and everything about her. She looked up at him and shared his smile, her eyes glittering, and laughed as he spun her around under his arm a couple of times. The night was truly perfect.

And then James felt a tug on the wards. Someone who wasn't meant to be there was trying to get through. He pulled out his wand and motioned for others to do the same. They cleared the dance floor of all but a dozen people who had their wands out ready. James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Joy, Amelia, Minerva and her husband, Amelia's brother and sister in law and Frank and Alice all stood in a crescent, so as to avoid hitting each other, and raised their wands ready to stop the gate crashers. Dumbledore had gone straight back to the castle after the ceremony stating that he did not have time to party, but that he wished them all the best in married life.

The intruders broke through the wards and appeared in the middle of the dance floor. People barely had a chance to recognise the Death Eater cloaks before they were hit with a combination of a dozen blasting curses and cutting hexes.

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><p>Severus Snape was standing outside the wards, waiting impatiently for them to be brought down by the ward master with them. Now Snape was usually a very patient man, you had to be to be a potions master. For this particular mission though, he couldn't wait to get started. For he would finally get everything he always wanted, revenge, power and Lily.<p>

He had been a Death Eater for over a year and, as a reward for recruiting Peter Pettigrew to the ranks of the Death Eaters as a spy, he was granted the honour of leading this raid against Potter's own wedding party. True he was only leading five other Death Eaters, two of which were inner circle members as the Dark Lord wanted some experience on this mission, but everyone would scream and run when they arrived anyway, including Potter and Black, all bark and no bite that they were. It was what always happened. And when he returned to the Dark Lord victorious he would be offered a place in the inner circle.

As for Potter, well, he would torture him of course, to the brink of insanity, but not with the cruciatus, no, something far worse. He would take Lily in front of him. He would show him what a real man could do. He'd throw a few spells at him every now and again. And then, when the pathetic excuse of a man had given up hope, he'd kill him after assuring him that he'd be reunited with Lily. Of course he wouldn't specify how long it would be.

The Lestrange brothers, the two inner circle members, were very exited. They had their own grabs to make. They planned on grabbing Andromeda Tonks because she had been meant for Rabastian, the older brother, before she went and eloped with a mudblood. First they would kill him and then they would put her through so much pain that she'd be begging them to take her just to end it. And yes, they would both take her as they always shared everything, just like they would share Bellatrix when she married Rodolphus. They also wanted her four year old freak of a daughter. She would grow and as a Metamorphmagus she would make playtime all the more fun. And the Dark Lord could always use another spy, something she would be perfect for. While they were at it they might as well go for the package and take Sirius. Not Narcissa, she was promised to Lucius Malfoy, besides he'd already promised them some time with her, but they could always make Sirius pay for betraying his family. And when Regulus finally joined he would be given free pass to do what ever he wanted with his family as rewards. They had it all planned out.

The other three were new recruits, just about to start their seventh year at Hogwarts. They had no illusions of power or rewards yet, they just wanted to kill and rape, but they would soon rise amongst the ranks, or so they thought.

Finally the ward master broke through the last of the wards and the Death Eaters left with a crack.

They arrived in the ball room and found a dozen wands pointing at them and a bunch of spells racing towards them. Snape's last thought was wondering why nobody had run screaming from their presence. The rest just thought 'Oh Shit!'

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><p>The failed raid of the Potter's wedding would come to be known as the turning point of the war. The photo in The Prophet of the Potters and ten of their guest's cutting down and blasting through Death Eaters brought hope to the people that they could be killed, they weren't invulnerable, and so the people fought back. Voldemort found himself outnumbered. His troops were being killed fast and no one wanted to join him for fear of being killed. Regulus joined him and then began to pass information to his brother. Some of this information was about a spy and led to Peter being discovered. Lucius Malfoy was killed in a desperate raid attempt not one month after his son was born. Narcissa requested to take the name Black again and was allowed. When Regulus went missing and was presumed dead the House of Black showed its true colours and backed the Potters. Their motto meant 'Always Pure' and everyone had always assumed that they meant blood. They liked it that way as it meant they could infiltrate dark organisations and take them down from the inside. Dark organisations weren't pure. The motto really meant 'Always Pure' of mind, of soul, of heart and of magic. All magic was naturally pure, it was how you used it that mattered. Ripping your soul to pieces by killing was not pure.<p>

They had never wanted the daughters of the House of Black anywhere near Voldemort. They knew he was a master of Legilimency and thus had the power to brainwash people to believe what he believed. They had taught all the children of House of Black occlumency to protect their minds, but to be able to protect completely against Voldemort they would need decades to practice, decades they didn't have. The girls were prepared to do what they had to do. Andromeda was in love though and wanted to marry Ted Tonks. She came up with the idea that she would elope with him and she would be 'disowned.' It would look like discord within the house and people would under estimate them.

The Blacks had sent their heir into Gryffindor with his cousin, James, to protect him, and they made it seem they hated him. They pretended to disown him just as they had 'disowned' Andromeda. They were waiting for the end of the war to 'bring them back to the family' so to speak, but Orion died of grief when Regulus died, his wife wasn't too far behind him. She left behind a cursed painting of herself. It would revert to its normal state only when the next Lord Black accepted his position. When people thought about that they had to admit, it was no wonder they were a Slytherin family.

James and Lily had a baby boy who they named Harry James and decided to take a small break from the war to look after Harry. During this time Dumbledore told them of a prophecy that could be about their son. So they extended their break for a while to wait out the war.

Voldemort's army was decimated. He had lost so many. He was powerful yes, but without funding, powerful political allies and an army he couldn't do any damage. So he crept away to plot. He went into hiding. He disappeared and the war officially ended on October thirty first Nineteen Eighty One. People celebrated his fall from power, but no body believed he was gone for good. Fudge ran for minister claiming just that and was told to literally piss off by someone in the crowd. Bartemius Crouch Senior became the next minister and he prepared the country for Voldemort's possible return, to make sure he, nor any other Dark Lord, could never get a foothold in Britain ever again. His son Bartemius Crouch Junior, having just left Hogwarts, was already in auror training. If he didn't become head of the DMLE, then he could at least become head of the Auror office and still make his dad proud.

Sirius took up his position of Lord Black and 'welcomed' Andromeda back to the family, along with her husband and daughter. His mothers portrait reverted to the mother he had known growing up. Unfortunately Kreacher seemed to be a bit demented and wouldn't trust Sirius. He truly believed that Sirius had broken his mother's heart and wouldn't listen to anything otherwise. Sirius knew it would be cruel give him clothes, so he allowed Kreacher to stay and asked the Malfoy's odd elf Dobby to help around the house.

In the spring after Voldemort's disappearance, Lily gave birth to twin girls. Lily Selene and Rose Marie were born identical twins on the twenty third of April Nineteen Eighty Two at ten in the morning. By one that afternoon they both had changed their hair colour, they were Metamorphmagus'. Harry grew up loved with many family and friends, but was it to last.

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><p>So ... Reviews, thoughts and comments are appriciated. P.S. In this story the twins are their own characters and not other people. Also, I am not sure yet as to what ship this should be, please review and let me know if you want a HarryHermione or a Harry/Luna fic. I really don't mind for this fic, either will work.


	2. Meet The Family

I do not own Harry Potter except for a few OCs. Please enjoy.

**Meet The Family**

The heavy black door to number twelve Grimmauld place opened and a man with shoulder length, wavy black hair and grey eyes walked in. He took off his hat and cloak and hung them on the stand as a woman with long, light brown hair and blue eyes entered behind him. Behind her was a small boy who looked like the man. The man took their cloaks and hats for them and hung them up. He looked around the hall way and sighed, it was good to be home.

"Cissy, Bella, we're home." He led his family into the sitting room and found his best friend reading. "Remus my old friend, when did you get here?"

"Well Sirius about two hours ago when you said you'd be back." Remus looked over the book at Sirius and raised an eyebrow. "And before you ask, Amelia is at work and the kids are up stairs playing."

"Yeah well, sorry about being late, but you know what Jean-Paul is like. Its always just one more fire whiskey before you go." Sirius stopped and turned around when the door opened. Two women walked in, one with untameable black hair and the other with white blonde hair with a black streak through. Both of them had grey eyes.

"Siri. Joy. Welcome home. We've all missed you so much, especially the kids." Bellatrix said with a smile as she hugged the couple. She then knelt down next to the young boy. "And how is little Phineas after his trip?"

"Aunty Bella!" Phineas dragged out her name in exasperation in the way only young children can. "I'm not little. I'm eight years old." He puffed out his chest and everyone laughed as he reminded them of his father.

"So how was Frances? I trust everything went well." Narcissa took her turn to hug the three of them.

"Of course. The Delacours were as gracious as ever. The contract is complete. Phineas Regulus Black will marry Gabrielle Aurore Delacour unless, as the escape clause states, they do not wish to by the time she turns seventeen." Phineas looked a little glum at the talk of marriage, but the escape clause at least placated him. He knew why his parents had done it. To stop advances from girls who were only after his family fortune. He also knew that the adults were planning the same thing for the others, his cousins and his friends. He grinned at that thought. He may have to go through with this, but he wouldn't be alone. He was just like his father.

The only reason it hadn't happened to Harry, Draco and Susan yet (and they were heading to Hogwarts in under two weeks) was that his father and uncle wanted to see how they would handle themselves. They were right pranksters, but if there turned out to be any nutters at school, then next summer they would find themselves with their own marriage contracts.

The conversation carried on for a few minutes until they heard a scream from a few floors up followed by lots of running.

"YOU LITTLE BRATS! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN SKIN YOU ALL ALIVE!"

"YOU KNOW THAT'S NO WAY TO GET US TO STOP!"

"I DON'T CARE! I'M GONNA KILL YOU BRATS!"

"NYMPHADORA TONKS! DON'T YOU DARE HURT ONE HAIR ON THE LITTLE DARLING'S HEADS!"

"LITTLE DARLING'S? LITTLE DARLING'S? THOSE 'LITTLE DARLING'S' JUST DUMPED A BUCKET OF WATER ON MY HEAD!"

Suddenly the doors flew open and in ran eight small children, three boys and five girls. They spotted Phineas and ran over to him. They started to chat with him about his trip, what had happened while he was gone and other such things.

Their conversation stopped briefly when the doors slammed open once again and an angry, wet teenager walked into the room. Nymphadora, who preferred to be called by her last name, Tonks, was a seventeen year old Metamorphmagus who was about to start her last year at Hogwarts. Tonks stayed at the manor for two weeks at the beginning of summer and two at the end. She said it was easier for three reasons. Her homework, to get back on the train and to see her family. It was at times like this that she hated parts of said family. The kids looked at her and then went back to talking.

Tonks huffed at the amount of adults around. She couldn't have her vengeance, yet. She stalked out of the room and off to dry herself off. Sirius looked at the kids. They looked happy, friends and family alike. First there were the three youngest Phineas, Leon and Druella, although she demanded that people call her Ella. All were eight years old. Phineas was his and Joy's son and Leon was Remus and Amelia's. Leon had his dads sandy blonde hair and amber eyes. He was smart for his age, but also enjoyed a good prank. He also showed traits of the wolf. He wasn't a were, but as the son of one he had inherited his fathers strength, speed and senses as well as natural occlumency shield and a wolf that protected his mind. Of course the downside to this was that the wolf tried to take control while he was weak. Not in a bad way but as a defence or offence, when he was angry or wounded. He had to keep the wolf at bay, especially in his wolf form.

Sirius didn't know why everybody thought it was so difficult to become an Animagus. Sure it took like two years, but if you started off young and had people to guide you it was pretty easy. Still took a hell of a long time though. He also didn't know why people thought that you became your inner animal, that you couldn't choose. If that was the case then Pettigrew wouldn't have been a rat, he'd have been a slug. It was wrong to compare him to a rat. At least a rat had a backbone. He was also sure that James wouldn't have been a stag. Despite all the posturing Snivellus claimed he did, James wasn't truly like that. It was an act to stop people from figuring out any of there secrets. Misdirection. While people thought they were showboating pranksters, no one saw them preparing to join the war. James most certainly wouldn't have done that if he were truly like that pompous git Lockheart. Now there's a disturbing thought. 'James Lockheart'. Sirius shivered and pulled himself from those thoughts.

The point was, you could choose your animal. And all of the children had chosen to be wolves of differing colours and sizes. In the twins case they really were multicoloured. They said it was in support of their uncle Moony and cousin Leon, but Sirius suspected it had a little to do with the fact that they already acted like a pack, they were just making it official. He had a feeling that what people thought about Animagi were rumours started by the ministry of magic to put people off the idea to become one.

Druella, or Ella even, looked just like her mother with black, untameable hair and grey eyes. She didn't know who her father was, but then neither did Bellatrix. They had been out in the muggle world celebrating the fact that Joy and Amelia were pregnant. Bella was at the bar drinking when a man came up to drink with her. She woke up the next morning in his bed with no memory of the night before. She grabbed her clothes and snuck out of his home. She had nothing against muggles, but she didn't know if he had taken advantage of her or the other way around and as she couldn't remember, she couldn't trust him. She had realised she was pregnant a month later. When they had placed her baby daughter in her arms she had named her Druella and promised to always love and look after her. Druella had once complained to her mother about her name. Her mother had laughed.

"It could be worse." She had said "You could be called Nymphadora." Tonks had refused to speak to her for a week after that comment.

There was Susan, Leon's cousin and adopted big sister. She had red hair and soft blue eyes. The poor girl had been made an orphan just a day after she had been born, about a year and six months before Voldemort had disappeared. One of Voldemort's supporters, a man named Yaxley, had gone to her home under the guise of adding to the wards. Instead he had ripped them down and called his Lord. Voldemort appeared, but not before Susan's father had killed Yaxley. Voldemort had killed her father, mother and her eight year old brother. Amelia, being Susan's aunt, had taken her in. Susan had been living with Amelia and Remus ever since.

Draco was Narcissa's boy. His father, Lucius Malfoy was dead. He had platinum blonde hair and grey eyes. Draco lived at Grimmauld place with his mother and the rest of his family. It wasn't like they didn't have room.

The other blonde in the room was little Luna Lovegood. She had blue grey eyes and a dreamy aura, just like her mother. Selene was a wonderful witch. She had been best friends with Lily and Alice while in school and afterwards. It was a sad day when they lost her. Her experiments had caused her death just over a year before, and little Luna had seen it happen. Her father had lost it a bit when it happened. They took him to St. Mungos where they learned that while he could take care of himself, he was not able to care for a child. So with his permission they had brought Luna under their care and to live under there roof. Like he thought, they had the room.

The twins, Lily and Rose, were hard to describe with their Metamorph powers, but they did tend to look like miniature versions of their mother Lily or their father James, or even their brother Harry. Though they did like to morph into miniature versions of everyone.

Harry was the spitting image of his father, but he had Lily's eyes. He also had that damned scar on his forehead. They all hated the night that he got it with a passion. Voldemort had decided to come back.

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><p>He decided to make a grand reappearance on October Thirty First Nineteen Eighty Six, exactly five years after he had disappeared. He needed an edge, so he sneaked into the Department of Mysteries. After hours of searching and letting his magic guide him he came across something odd. A prophecy with is name on it. He smashed it open and saw the figure appear in front of him. In a raspy voice the figure began to say.<p>

"_The one with the power to __vanquish the Dark Lord approaches … born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies …"_*

That was all he heard before DoM Unspeakables, alerted that someone had picked up a prophecy, arrived with their wands out yelling for him to surrender and silencing the prophecy. Voldemort threw a few curses before disappearing. He thought about what he had heard and decided it had to mean either the Longbottom boy or the Potter boy. Obviously it was the Longbottom boy, as no half blood could be as powerful as him. Dumbledore was a half blood, but he was over a hundred years old, that's where his power came from. And he was a half blood, but he was the heir to Salazar Slytherin. But the Potters were still a threat, so he planned to kill them first, before going to kill the Longbottoms.

He arrived in Godric's hollow that Halloween ready to make a glorious come back while the wizarding world was celebrating five years of peace.

That night families across the country celebrated. The Blacks stayed in London that year while the Lupins went to Spain on holiday. The twins were sleeping over at Luna's house and so James, Lily and Harry were all alone. Lily was taking Harry upstairs when the door burst open to reveal a nightmare that hadn't been seen in years. With the peace time James had let his guard down and hadn't been watching the warning crystals for intruders. Lily raced upstairs with Harry and made for his room, the furthest one from the stairs. She was just about to slam the door shut when she heard James cry out and hit the floor. She knew he was dead. She barricaded the door and then pushed her son back towards the far wall. She put up a shield charm and stood in front of him. She would fight this monster. She would save her son or die trying.

The door burst open and said monster walked in. She threw every curse, hex, jinx and even charm she knew at him. She fought to the bitter end, but finally he hit her. He caught her jugular vein on her neck with a well placed cutting hex. She knew she only had minutes so she crawled to her son and wiped some of her blood on his forehead while saying that she loved him before she passed out never to awaken again.

Voldemort pointed his wand at Harry's forehead as Harry looked at him with tears running down his face. With a smile on his face he cast the killing curse at Harry. His smile disappeared when he saw his curse rebound off the boy and back at him. He tried to move, but it was too late. His soul was ripped from his body and fled the village, leaving the house in ruins and Harry unconscious.

Sirius, Joy, Remus and Amelia, alerted to the fact that the wards around the Potters home had been destroyed, had found Harry in the wreckage. They had sent Harry to Grimmauld Place with Joy and Amelia to the DMLE to file a report. They had then brought the bodies of their best friends out of the house and took them to St. Mungos for post mortems.

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><p>It had been a sad day. Halloween for them all was now a day of mourning while the rest of their world celebrated. He missed them greatly, they all did. He pulled himself from such depressing thoughts. Now was not the time to be thinking them.<p>

"So." Sirius said, grabbing everyone's attention. "Has everyone got their school list?" After getting nods from Harry, Draco, Susan and a now dry Tonks he continued "Who's ready for a trip to Diagon Alley then?" There was general cheering around the room, even from two of the adults, the other three were giggling manically about the upcoming shopping trip.

"Alright then, everyone go get ready. It's half ten, I want everyone back here at eleven, ready to go." The youngsters ran from the room as quick as they could while the adults left at a more sedate pace. Sirius thought about his family. They had all suffered so much tragedy. He loved them all, and promised for the millionth time to protect them to the best of his abilities, unaware that the other adults in the family thought the same thing.

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><p>So what do you think so far? Sorry about killing so many people, but it was necessary, the prophecy is still in play and Voldemort is still a threat. Look at it this way, I gave you some new life in the forms of Lily, Rose, Leon and Druella. Anyway, please review. P.S. I fixed this chapter a bit as some one thought Harry was an only child and was confused about the Twins, so I elaborated. also, to the same person, Harry was six when James and Lily died, just thought I'd clear that up.<p> 


	3. Diagon Alley

I do not own Harry Potter, obviously, or Harry would never have ended up with Ginny.

**Diagon Alley**

Sirius stood in the hallway with Remus waiting for the rest of the family to join them.

"So how's Amelia?" Sirius asked

"She's alright. Rufus is vying for her job again though." Remus sighed.

"Again? What's he claiming this time?" Remus rolled his eyes.

"That she can't work while pregnant again and that she won't be able to do the job with three children to look after."

"Well," Sirius said "at least it wasn't about you this time. He really is a prejudiced arse isn't he? If it's not werewolves it's women. If it's not women it's foreigners. If it were up to him only British wizards would work in the ministry." His rant finished the hallway went quiet. They could here the kids running around upstairs and Cissy and Bella calling after them. "So," Sirius broke the silence "Do you know what the sex is yet?"

"We found out yesterday. It's a girl." Remus said with a huge smile on his face. "She's a month along and due in April."

"Congratulations mate." Sirius patted him on the back and looked at his watch. He walked to the bottom of the stairs and bellowed "IT'S ELEVEN O'CLOCK! TIME'S UP! FRONT AND CENTER BY THE FRONT DOOR!"

Thundering footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs and Sirius jumped out of the way just in time. Harry, Draco and Susan ran over to Remus and stood in a line smiling at Sirius. The rest of the kids ran down followed by the Black women at a more sedate pace.

"Ok." Remus said "We're meeting Amelia outside the Ministry, Dora's parents outside St. Mungos and the Longbottoms at the Leaky Cauldron. Now has everyone got everything they need?" Everyone nodded "Good. Off we go then." He opened the door and they all filed out into the crisp British summer morning. The group made their way to Diagon Alley via the Ministry and St. Mungos.

They made it to the Ministry and found Amelia outside waiting. She kissed Remus before hugging Susan and Leon and then they were off again. Five minutes later they were outside St. Mungos where they greeted Ted, who told them that Andy was just finishing her shift. When she came out she kissed her husband and hugged her daughter and sisters. And then they were walking again. When they reached the Leaky Cauldron it was eleven thirty and the Longbottoms were just coming through the Floo. The kids ran over to say hello to Neville and his younger sister Lauren. They both had dark brown hair and pale blue eyes and looked more like their mother. After everyone had said hello all twenty two of them moved into the back courtyard to get into Diagon Alley.

Once through the archway the adults discussed for a few minutes about what they were going to do first. They decided that they would all go to Gringotts together and then split up to buy everything. They headed up the street and up the white marble steps into the bank. After a visit to the Bones, Malfoy and Potter trust vaults and the Black, Longbottom and Lupin vaults they were back out in the sunshine. From Gringotts Andy and Ted went with Dora to get her seventh year stuff. Remus and Narcissa went with Phin, Leon and Ella to get the first year potion supplies and astronomy equipment. Amelia, Bella and Alice took Lily, Rose and Lauren to Flourish and Blots to collect the first year books. That left Sirius, Joy and Frank to take Harry, Draco, Susan and Neville to get their robes, wands and pets. Luna followed them as it would be her turn next year. They spent nearly an hour getting their robes done. While waiting for Madam Malkin to finish them they went to get their wands. They stepped into Ollivander's dark and dingy shop and waited by the counter.

"Hello and welcome to my shop." They all jumped. Ollivander had seemingly appeared out of the wall next to them. Sirius had a suspicion that he had warded the shop to allow himself to apparate but no one else to. "Now then, four new Hogwarts students. Lets see, ah yes, alphabetically?" They all nodded "Good, Mr Black first then." Draco stepped forward. "Right or Left Handed?" Draco lifted his right hand and Ollivander started to measure him. Then Ollivander disappeared between the stacks of wands. After fifteen minutes Draco had his brand new eight inch Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring wand. Susan went next and after specifying that she was left handed he started measuring again. Five minutes later she had a nine and a half inch Oak and Gryphon feather wand. Neville told him he was ambidextrous and after seven minutes he had a ten and a quarter inch Ash and Unicorn Hair wand.

Finally it was Harry's turn. He held up his right arm and waited. Ollivander went on and on about his parents wands and gave him similar wands to try, but nothing would work. After twenty minutes Ollivander was almost giddy at how many wands he had gone through while everyone else was getting bored. Frank had actually fallen asleep. Ollivander suddenly paused. "Hmm," he said "I wonder." Joy shook Frank awake as Ollivander disappeared once more into the back of the shop. He came back with a single box. He opened the box and pulled out the wand within. Harry felt a pull towards it. "Eleven and a half inches. Holly and Phoenix Feather. Give it a try." Ollivander held out the wand. Harry tentatively gripped the wand and felt a warmth rush down his arm and through his finger tips. A wind blew around him and sparks shot from the end. Ollivander was bouncing up and down. "Oh yes. That's definitely the one. Yes. Hmm. Curious. How very, very curious." Harry wondered what he meant.

"Excuse me sir. What's curious?"

"Well you see Mr. Potter, I remember every wand I've ever sold. The Phoenix whose feather resides in your wand gave another feather, just one other." He paused "It's curious that you should be destined for this wand when its brother … Its brother gave you that scar." Sirius quickly paid for the wands before hurrying the kids out of the shop. They went back to Madam Malkin's to pick up their robes before heading to Elopes Owl Emporium. There Harry got a snowy owl and Neville got a black eagle owl. They went to the other pet shop for Draco and Susan. Susan got a black kitten that she named Midnight and Draco got a half Kneasle Tabby kitten that he named Fenris. They headed back to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with everyone else for a meal before heading home.

Half way through the meal they saw a very tall man with very bushy hair walk through the pub.

"Hagrid." Sirius called. "Over here." Hagrid turned around to see Sirius waving his arm. He smiled and lumbered over to their table. "Ello everyone. Ow ya doin'? I suppose you're ere ta do ya school shoppin'." They had a chat and Hagrid spoke of how wonderful Hogwarts was and how he was the groundskeeper. "Dumbledore trusts me ta look after the grounds and forest ya see. Trusts me wi' a lot of thin's. Like righ' now I'm on a mission for Dumbledore ta collect a package from Gringotts and take it ta Hogwarts for a friend of his. No better place ta protec' somethin' than Hogwarts … I shouldn't of told ya all of tha' … forge' everythin' I just said. I gotta go." Hagrid left rather hastily after that. They finished their meal and headed home. The Longbottoms left through the Floo as did the Lupins. Andy and Ted disapparated while the rest walked back to Grimmauld Place.

As he went to sleep that night Harry was excited. In a month he would be off to Hogwarts. But there was something even closer to be excited about. The next day was his and Neville's birthday. He couldn't wait.

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><p>Please enjoy and review.<p> 


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